April 11 was Global Youth Service Day, and students in the Academy of International Studies (AIS) at Independence High School celebrated their successes in helping to provide a school and clean drinking water for the children of South Sudan.

For the past three years AIS students have been working to raise awareness and funds for children living in substandard conditions in a tiny country in northeastern Africa.

“In 2011, we held a spaghetti dinner and raised $1,500 for the school in South Sudan,” says senior Rachel Casale, who is president of the Interact Club. “In 2012, we sponsored the Carry the Jerry 5K to help fund clean water at the school, and we raised $2,000.”

Casale explained to the attentive crowd that in 2013, AIS students participated in the Any1Can Project where over 2,000 area students designed t-shirts raising awareness about a variety of global issues such as peace, education, water conservation, tolerance, hunger, and poverty. […]